We tried Sat night at our BacchusBadBoys Xmas Party:1. HugCllrs Syrah BassettiVnyd/SLOCnty (13.1%) 2004: Very dark color w/ little bricking; bit funky aromas at first that cleared to very strong blackberry/boysenberry/Syrah quite peppery/cold-climate/cracked black pepper light earthy/smoky/toasty/oak bit roasted/Rhonish/Cornas/Clape-like lovely complex nose; fairly tart bit lean/metallic strong blackberry/Syrah/peppery/cracked black pepper/cold-climate some Rhonish/Cornas-like/roasted slight tannic/dried-out/angular flavor; long bit tannic/dried-out/angular strong blackberry/Syrah/boysenberry peppery/roasted/Rhonish/Clape-like some tart/tangy/metallic finish; no signs of being tired but starting to dry out a bit on the palate; drink up. $27.00______________2. SonomaCoastVnyds Syrah ClaryRanch&HummingbirdHillsVnyd/SonomaCoast (14.56%; TA: 0.669; 3955 cs; www.SonomaCoastVineyards.com) Winemaker: AnthonyAustin/Sebastapol 2003: Med.dark color w/ slighht bricking; rather strong toasty/Fr.oak/charred slight plastic/new car/naugahyde metallic/ozone/pungent somewhat spicy/blackberry/Syrah/earthy bit complex nose; very tart rather earthy/pungent/ozone/metallic/tangy bit plastic/naugahyde/new vinyl rather toasty/charred/oak some blackberry/Syrah/spicy somewhat tannic/dried-out/astringent flavor; long strong toasty/charred/smoky/oak some blackberry/spicy/Syrah/earthy some tannic/astringent/dried-out finish; no signs of being tired but starting to dry out on the palate and only headed downhill from here. $26.00_____________________________________And a wee BloodyPulpit:1. Hug: This is the 2'nd best wine I've ever had from AugieHug. The first best being the same wine I had 2 weeks ago. It showed plenty of cold-climate/peppery character and reminded me some of a Clape Cornas in it slightly rustic character. Susan&Ellis Bassetti's vnyd, out West of YorkMtn near the coast is one of the truly cold-climate Syrah vnyds in Calif. Since SteveEdmunds dropped the vnyd and MatGarretson departed Paso, I've not had anything recent from the BassettiVnyd...so don't really know if they're holding up, quality-wise._______________2. SonomaCoastVnyds: This was a wnry started by John & Barbara Drady. They hired TonyAustin as their winemaker. The operation was sold some 4-5 yrs ago and I haven't tried anything recently from the, The Drady's are still involved in some level and Tony remains the winemaker. My sense is that the prices are a biit on the pricey side. TonyAustin was the founding winemaker at FirestoneCllrs, working w/ AndreTschelichov. He made some of the first really good Pinots in SantaBarbaraCnty. I don't think Tony really gets the credit for his early contributions he made to SBC wines. He left Firestone and started his own AustinCllrs label and planted the AlisosCanyonVnyd. After a few yrs hiatus, he returned to his roots in SonomaCnty as winemaker at SonomaCoastCllrs.Tom

Steve was one of the very first to take fruit from Bassetti. And he made some pretty spectacular ones from it. But, as I recall, he didn't think it was being farmed all that well and they wern't giving him the quality of fruitthat he thinks was up to snuff.Tom

The 2001 ESJ Bassetti is the best domestic Syrah I have ever had. I thought I read somewhere that Steve parted with this vineyard over either quality of quantity of fruit available but I don't remember which and considering my memory these days both could be wrong.

Well thanks to the review feature, I see Tom answered the question before my post went through. So it is an issue with quality.

Tom; I didn't drop Bassetti, Ellis dropped me. He stopped selling his grapes after the '05 season because he wanted to bottle it all under his own label. I don't know how that's worked out for him, but I think I remember seeing something about a Bassetti Syrah from a more recent vintage from a different winery.

I don't know just how I'm supposed to play this scene, but I ain't afraid to learn...

Steve Edmunds wrote:Tom; I didn't drop Bassetti, Ellis dropped me. He stopped selling his grapes after the '05 season because he wanted to bottle it all under his own label. I don't know how that's worked out for him, but I think I remember seeing something about a Bassetti Syrah from a more recent vintage from a different winery.

Steve,I guess I got my story on that bass-akwards.Do you know who was making the wine for Ellis??

Google Sez: The wine is being made at Denner since 2006. Early on made at Alban. Still lists EdStJ on their WebSite, whichlooks to be pretty stale since it still also lists Garretson and HdR. Latest wine listed is 2007 Madolyn Syrah. So guess Idon't know what's going on but I'll poke around & find out.Tom